Simulation::Automate - A Simulation Automation Tool
The set of modules is called Simulation::Automate.
The tool itself is called SynSim, the command synsim.
use Simulation::Automate;
&synsim();
SynSim is a generic template-driven simulation automation tool. It works with any simulator that accepts text input files and generates text output (and even those that don't. See EXAMPLES for special cases). It executes thousands of simulations with different input files automatically, and processes the results. Postprocessing facilities include basic statistical analysis and automatic generation of PostScript plots with Gnuplot. SynSim is entirely modular, making it easy to add your own analysis and postprocessing routines.
tar -zxvf Simulation-Automate-0.9.5.tar.gz
This installation procedure will install the Simulation::Automate modules in a directory of your choice, and create a template directory structure for your SynSim project.
local_install.pl), type:
perl local_install.pl
Local SinSym directory? [/local/home/wim/SynSim]:
If you enter just a name, the installer assumes that the directory is in your home directory. If you want to install SynSim outside your home directory, enter a full path.
Simulation project directory? [SynSimProject]:
This directory is a subdirectory of the local SynSim directory.
That's it. Now you can go to your project directory and run the synsim script as a test:
./synsim
This will run a simple test. If the installation was succesful, it will display the follwing message:
SynSim Installation Test
Simulation::Automate version 0.9.6
installed locally in /home/wim/SynSim/Test
Finished SynSim run
This is the typical Makefile.PL-driven installation procedure. It is only required for system-wide installation, but it works for local installation as well.
cd Simulation-Automate-0.9.5
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
su
make install
or
sudo make install
make localinstall
or
perl -e "use Simulation::Automate;
&Simulation::Automate::localinstall();"
make setup
or
perl -e "use Simulation::Automate;
&Simulation::Automate::setup();"
The archive structure is as follows:
README
Makefile.PL
Automate.pm
local_install.pl
Automate/
Remote.pm
PostProcLib.pm
Analysis.pm
Dictionary.pm
PostProcessors.pm
eg/
synsim
synsim.data
ErrorFlags.data
Histogram.data
SweepVar.data
Expressions.data
gnuplot.data
SOURCES/
bufsim3.cc
MersenneTwister.h
TEMPLATES/
test.templ
DEVTYPES/
SIMTYPES/
bufsim3.templ
PLUGINS/
To configure SynSim for use with your simulator, you must create a set of files in your SynSim project directory structure. This paragraph gives an overview of the different types of files and their place in the SynSim project directory structure.
You can create a SynSim directory structure with perl local_install.pl or make setup (see INSTALLATION for details). If you already have an existing project, you can do this:
mkdir NewProject
synsim script from the old project:
cp oldProject/synsim NewProject
NewProject directory and run synsim with the -D option:
cd NewProject
./synsim -D
If you want to create it manually, this is the structure. Directories between square brackets are optional.
YourProject/
synsim
YourDataFile.data
[SOURCES/]
TEMPLATES/
YourSimTempl.templ
[DEVTYPES/]
[SIMTYPES/]
[PLUGINS/]
[Simulation/SynSim/]
[Dictionary.pm]
[PostProcessors.pm]
The synsim script is the actual script that runs the DOE. It contains the 2 lines from the SYNOPSIS.
The local Simulation/Automate modules are only required if you want to customize the postprocessing.
=head2 Source files
The directory SOURCES/ is optional. It should contain all files which are required ``read-only'' by your simulator (e.g. header files, library files, wrappers).
Template files are files in which simulation variables will be substituted by their values to create the input file for your simulator. They must be stored in the TEMPLATES/ directory, and have by convention the extension .templ.
SynSim variable format
The template file format is free, but the variables to be substituted by SynSim must be in uppercase and start with an underscore:
Examples:
_VAR1
_LONG_VARIABLE_NAME
To create a template file, start from an existing input file for your simulator. Replace the values of the variables to be modified by SynSim by a SynSim variable name (e.g. var1 = 2.5 => var1 = _VAR1). Put the template files in TEMPLATES.
Note: Relative paths to source files
SynSim creates a run directory ath the same level as the SOURCES and TEMPLATES directories. All commands (compilations etc.) are executed in that directory. As a consequence, paths to source files (e.g. header files) should be ``../SOURCES/sourcefilename''.
Note: The DEVTYPES/ and SIMTYPES/ subdirectories
SynSim can create an input file by combining two different template files, generally called device templates and simulation templates. This is useful in case you want to run different types of simulations on different devices, e.g. DC analysis, transient simulations, small-signal and noise analysis on 4 different types of operational amplifiers. In total, this requires 16 different input files, but only 8 different template files (4 for the simulation type, 4 for the device types). If you want to use this approach, device templates should go in TEMPLATES/DEVTYPES/ and simulation templates in TEMPLATES/SIMTYPES/. SynSim will check both directories for files as defined in the datafile. If a matching file is found in DEVTYPES, it will be prepended to the simulation template from SIMTYPES.
The datafile is the input file for synsim. It contains the list of simulation variables and their values to be substituted in the template files, as well as a number of configuration variables. See DATAFILE DESCRIPTION for more information.
The PostProcessing.pm module contains routines to perform postprocessing on the simulation results (e.g. plotting, statistical analysis, etc). A number of generic routines are provided, as well as a library of functions to make it easier to develop your own postprocessing routines. See POSTPROCESSING for a full description).
Before the raw data are sent to the postprocessor, it is possible (and very easy) to preprocess the raw data. See PREROCESSING for more details.
Custom postprocessing and preprocessing routines can either be stored in the PLUGINS/ directory (preferred) or directly in the local PostProcessing.pm module (more intended for modified versions of the generic routines).
The Dictionary.pm module contains descriptions of the parameters used in the simulation. These descriptions are used by the postprocessing routines to make the simulation results more readable. See DICTIONARY for a full description).
The datafile defines which simulations to run, with which parameter values to use, and how to run the simulation. By convention, it has the extension .data.
The datafile is a case-sensitive text file with following syntax:
Example:
_PAR1 = 1,1,2,3,5,8,13
If a list has 3 elements START,STOP,STEP, then if possible this list will be expanded as a for-loop from START to STOP with step STEP.
Example:
_NBUFS = 16,64,8 # from 16 to 64 in steps if 8: 16,24,32,40,48,56,64
The main purpose of the datafile is to provide a list of all variables and their values to be substituted in the template files.
Example:
_PAR1 = 1,2
_PAR2 = 3,4,5
defines 6 simulations: (_PAR1,_PAR2)=(1,3),(1,4),(1,5),(2,3),(2,4),(2,5)
Simulation results for all values in ','-separated list are stored in a separate files.
Example:
GROUP: _PAR1,_PAR2
_PAR1 = 0;1;2;4
_PAR2 = 3;4;5;6
defines 4 simulations: (_PAR1,_PAR2)=(0,3);(1,4);(2,5);(4,6)
A number of configuration variables (``keywordsw) are provided to configure SynSim's behaviour. There is no mandatory order, but they must appear before the simulation variable. For the default order, see the EXAMPLES. In alphabetical order, they are:
Name of the routine to be used for the result analysis (postprocessing). This routine must be defined in PostProcessors.pm or in a file in the PLUGINS/ directory. A number of generic routines are provided, see POSTPROCESSING.
Examples:
yoursim1 -i INPUTFILE -o OUTPUTFILE
yoursim2 INPUTFILE > OUTPUTFILE
Some simulators expect a particular extension for the input file. This can be specified with the keyword EXT.
Example:
# First group: 2 parameters, each 4 values
GROUP: _PAR_A1,_PAR_A2
# Second group: 3 parameters, each 3 values
GROUP: _PAR_B1,_PAR_B2,_PAR_B3
# SynSim will run 4*3 simulations (default without groups would be 16*27)
_PAR_A1 = 0;1;2;4
_PAR_A2 = 3;4;5;6
_PAR_B1 = -1;1;2
_PAR_B2 = 3;4;7
_PAR_B3 = 3;6;15
@results before the actual postprocessing. Very usefull to ``streamline'' the raw results for postprocessing.
The name of the template file, with or without extension. By convention, this is the same as the type of simulation to be performed. If no extension is given, SynSIm checks for a TEMPLEXT keyword; if this is not defined, the extenstion defaults to .templ. SynSim will look for the template file in TEMPLATES/ and TEMPLATES/SIMTYPES/.
Note: Multiple simulation types
The value of SIMULATION can be a ','-separated list. In this case, SynSim will use the datafile for multiple types of simulations. Every item in the list can be used as a section header, demarkating a section with variables particular to that specific simulation.
.templ)
The name of the variable to be sweeped. Mandatory if the postprocessing routine is XYPlot.
The number of times the simulation has to be performed. For statistical work.
The column in the output file which contains the simulation results (default: 2). Mandatory if using any of the generic postprocessing routines.
gnuplot keywords, see the gnuplot documentation for details. The most commonly used, XLABEL and YLABEL are the X and Y axis labels. LOGSCALE is either X, Y or XY, and results in a logarithmic scale for the chosen axis.
The SynSim datafile has support for expressions, i.e. it is possible to express the value list of a variable in terms of the values of other variables.
Example:
# average packet length for IP dist
_MEANPL = ((_AGGREGATE==0)?2784:9120)
# average gap width
_MEANGW= int(_MEANPL*(1/_LOAD-1))
# average load
_LOAD = 0.1;0.2;0.3;0.4;0.5;0.6;0.7;0.8;0.9
# aggregate
_AGGREGATE = 0,12000
The variables used in the expressions must be defined in the datafile, although not upfront. Using circular references will not work. The expression syntax is Perl syntax, so any Perl function can be used. Due to the binding rules, it is necessary to enclose expressions using the ternary operator ?: with brackets (see example).
The SynSim script must be executed in a subdirectory of the SynSim directory which contains the TEMPLATES subdir and the datafile (like the Example directory in the distribution).
The command line is as follows:
./synsim [-h -D -i -p -P -v -N ] [datafile] [remote hostname]
The synsim script supports following command line options:
none: defaults to -f synsim.data
-D : Create an empty SynSim directory structure in the current directory.
-v : 'verbose'. Sends simulator output to STDOUT
-i : interactive. Calls gv or ggv to display a plot of the results.
Implies -p -v.
-p : plot. This enables generation of postscript plots via gnuplot.
A postprocessing routine is required to generate the plots.
-P : Plot. This option can be used to display plots created with -p.
-w : 'warnings'. Show warnings about undefined variables.
-N : 'No simulations'. Performs only postprocessing.
-h, -? : short help message
If [remote hostname] is provided, SynSim will try to run the simulation on the remote host.
The current implementation requires:
-ssh access to remote host
-scp access to remote host
-rsync server on the local host
-or,alternatively, an NFS mounted home directory
-as such, it will (probably) only work on Linux and similar systems
Postprocessing of the simulation results is handled by routines in the PostProcessors.pm module. This module uses the PostProcLib.pm and optionally Dictionary.pm and Analysis.pm.
SynSim comes with a number of generic postprocessing routines.
XVAR
Creates a plot using XVAR as X-axis and all other variables as parameters. This routine is completely generic.
XVAR,CONDVAR and CONDITION.
Creates a plot using SETVAR as X-axis; XVAR is checked against the condition COND (or CONDITION). The first value of CONDVAR that meets the condition is plotted. All other variables are parameters. This routine is completely generic.
XVAR, NRUNS
Optional configuration variables: NSIGMAS
Creates a plot using XVAR as X-axis and all other variables as paramters. Calculates average and 95% confidence intervals for NRUNS simulation runs and plots error flags. This routine is fully generic, the confidence interval (95% by default) can be set with NSIGMAS. See eg/ErrorFlags.data for an example datafile.
NBINS
Optional configuration variables: BINWIDTH, MIN, MAX
Creates a histogram of the simulation results. This requires the simulator to produce raw data for the histograms in a tabular format. When specifying logscale X or XY for the plot, the histogram bins will be logarithmic. See eg/Histogram.data for an example.
The number of bins in the histogram must be specified via NBINS. The width of the bins can be set with BINWIDTH, in which case MIN and MAX will be calculated. When MIN or MAX are set, BINWIDTH is calculated. It is possible to specify either MIN or MAX, the undefine value will be calculated.
All of the above routines have hooks for simple functions that modify the @results array. To call these functions, include them in the datafile with the PREPROCESSOR variable. e.g:
PREPROCESSOR : modify_results
All functions must be put in the PLUGINS folder or in the PostProcessors.pm module, and the template could be like this:
sub modify_results {
foreach my $results_line (@results) {
#Do whatever is required
}
} # End of modify_results
The Dictionary.pm module contains descriptions of the parameters used in the simulation. These descriptions are used by the postprocessing routines to make the simulation results more readable. The dictionary is stored in an associative array called make_nice. The description of the variable is stored in a field called 'title'; Descriptions of values are stored in fields indexed by the values.
Following example illustrates the syntax:
# Translate the parameter names and values into something meaningful
%Dictionary::make_nice=(
_BUFTYPE => {
title=>'Buffer type',
0=>'Adjustable',
1=>'Fixed-length',
2=>'Multi-exit',
},
_YOURVAR1 => {
title=>'Your description for variable 1',
},
_YOURVAR2 => {
title=>'Your description for variable 2',
'val1' => 'First value of _YOURVAR2',
'val3' => 'Second value of _YOURVAR2',
},
);
SynSim creates a run directory {SIMTYPE}-[datafile without .data]. It copies all necessary template files and source files to this directory; all output files are generated in this directory.
SynSim generates following files:
The names of these files are are {SIMTYPE}_C[counter]_[simulation number].out
counter is increased with every new combination of variables except for XVAR.
simulation number is the position of the value in the XVAR- list.
The names of these files are are {SIMTYPE}_C[counter]_.out
counter is increased with every new combination of variables in ','-separated lists.
Only the lines matching /OUTPUT_FILTER_PATTERN/ (treated as a Perl regular expression) are put in this file.
The names of these files are are {SIMTYPE}_C[counter].res,
counter is increased with every new combination of variables in ','-separated lists.
Only the lines in the .out files matching /OUTPUT_FILTER_PATTERN/ (treated as a Perl regular expression) are put in this file.
The names of these files are are {SIMTYPE}_[simulation number].{EXT}
simulation number is the position of the value in the list.
These files are overwritten for every combination of variables in ','-separated lists.
In a lot of cases you will want to create your own postprocessing routines. First of all, it is important to understand the SynSim output, so make sure you have read OUTPUT FILES. Apart from that, there is a very simple API.
%simdata
my @importantvars = @{$simdata{_VAR1}}
or
my $importantvar = $simdata{_VAR1}[0]
The same holds for configuration variables, but in general they only have a single value, so:
my $x_variable = $simdata{XVAR}
$simdata{_VAR}
you can use
$_var
This is especially handy for configuration variables, e.g.
$plotstyle
instead of
$simdata{PLOTSTYLE}
%current_set_vals. The keys are the variable names, the values the current value for the variable.
Example: A simple DOE with 2 variables.
_VAR1=1,2,3
_VAR2=3,4
This DOE has 6 sets. After the fourth run, the values of the set will be:
$current_set_vals{_VAR1}==2
$current_set_vals{_VAR1}==4
The current set is also available in string format through $current_set_str:
$current_set_str eq '_VAR1-2-_VAR2-4'
This is useful because this string is part of the name of the results file.
If the configuration variable SETVAR is defined, there is an additional string $current_set_except_setvar_str, which contains the current set except the SETVAR. This is usefull for conditional postprocessing, see e.g. CondXYPlot in PostProcessors.pm.
@results. Every element in this array is identical to the corresponding line in the output file for the given simulation run.
It is also possible to access the results files: $results_file_name contains the filename of the current results file, and @all_results_file_names is a list of all results files so far.
$last, which indicates the end of a sweep, $verylast which indicates the end of the DOE.
In summary, following variables are exported:
%simdata # contains all datafile variables
#and their values/value lists
@results # memory image of the results file
%current_set_vals # values for the current set
$current_set_str # same in string format
$current_set_except_setvar_str
$results_file_name
@all_results_file_names
$last # indicates end of a sweep
$verylast # indicates end of the DOE
An example of how all this is used:
sub YourRoutine {
## Define your own variables.
## As every variable can have a list of values,
## $simdata{'_YOURVAR1'} is an array reference.
my $yourvar=${$simdata{'_YOURVAR1'}}[0];
my @sweepvarvals=@{$simdata{$sweepvar}};
## $verylast indicates the end of all simulations
if(not $verylast) {
## what to do for all simulations
## $last indicates the end of a sweep
if($last) {
# Do something at the end of every sweep
} # if last
} else {
## On the very last run, collect the results into one nice plot
&gnuplot_combined($firstplotline,$plotlinetempl);
}
} #END of YourRoutine()
A module for basic statistical analysis is also available (Analysis.pm). Currently, the module provides 2 routines:
Arguments:
$file: name of the results file. The routine requires the data to be in whitespace-separated columns.
$par: Determines if the data will be differentiated before processing ($par='DIFF') or not (any other value for $par).
Differentiation is defined as subtracting the previous value in the
array form the current value. A '0' is prepended to the array to avoid
an undefined first point.
$datacol: column to use for data
$title: optional, a title for the histogram
$log: optional, log of values before calculating histogram or not ('LOG' or '')
| Use: | |
| my $file=``your_results_file.res''; | |
| my $par='YOURPAR'; | |
| my $datacol=2; | |
| my %stats=%{&calc_statistics($file,[$par, $datacol])}; |
my $avg=$stats{$par}{AVG}; # average
my $stdev=$stats{$par}{STDEV}; # standard deviation
my $min=$stats{$par}{MIN}; # min. value in set
my $max=$stats{$par}{MAX}; # max. value in set
$nbins: number of bins in the histogram
$min: force the value of the smallest bin (optional)
$max: force the value of the largest bin (optional)
use: my $par='DATA'; my %hists=%{&build_histograms(``your_results_file.res'', [$par,$datacol],$title,$log,$nbins,$min,$max)};
NOTE: Because the extra arguments are last, the $title and $log arguments can not be omitted. If not needed, supply ''.
Here are some examples of how to use SynSim for different types of simulators.
Normal use: spice -b circuit.sp > circuit.out
With SynSim:
e.g. a MOS device line in SPICE:
M1 VD VG VS VB nch w=10u l=10u
becomes
M1 VD VG VS VB _MODEL w=_WIDTH l=_LENGTH
TITLE: MOS drain current vs. length SIMTYPE : circuit COMMAND : spice -b inputfile > outputfile
# Required for postprocessing OUTPUT_FILTER_PATTERN : Id # keep only the drain current on the output file ANALYSIS_TEMPLATE : SweepVar # default template for simple sweep SWEEPVAR : _L # we sweep the length, the other variables are parameters DATACOL: 2 # first col is the name
_L = 1u,2u,5u,10u,20u,50u _W = 10u,100u _MODEL = nch
There are more possible keywords, cf. DATAFILE DESCRIPTION.
./synsim -p -i -v -f IDvsL.data
-p to create plots -i means interactive, so the plots are displayed during simulation -v for verbose output -f because the filename is not the default name
SynSim will run 12 SPICE simulations and produce 1 plot with all results.
circuit-IDvsL
Normal use: simplesim -a50 -b100 -c0.7
Output is saved in out.txt.
With SynSim:
system("simplesim -a_VAR1 -b_VAR2 -c_VAR3");
system("cp out.txt $ARGV[0]");
TITLE: simplesim test SIMTYPE : simplesim COMMAND : perl inputfile outputfile
./synsim -f test.data
SynSim will run without any messages and produce no plots.
simplesim-test
Normal use: Modify values for #if and #ifdef constants in the header file; then compile and run.
e.g.:
vi bufsim3.h g++ -o bufsim3 bufsim3.cc ./bufsim3 > outputfile
With SynSim:
open(HEADER,">bufsim3.h"); print HEADER <<"ENDH"; #define NBUFS _NBUFS #define NPACKETS _NPACK #AGGREGATE _AGGREGATE ENDH close HEADER;
system("g++ -o bufsim3 bufsim3.cc");
system("./bufsim3 $ARGV[0]");
TITLE: bufsim3 test (_NBUFS, _NPACK) # will be substituted by the values SIMTYPE : bufsim3 COMMAND : perl inputfile outputfile
./synsim -w -v -f Aggregate.data
SynSim will run verbose and flag all variables not defined in the datafile.
bufsim3-Aggregate
Normal use: spectre circuit.scs -raw circuit.raw
With SynSim:
In the datafile:
TITLE: Spectre simulation with SPF output EXT: .scs COMMAND: spectre inputfile -raw outputfile.raw > outputfile
outputfile, but not outputfile.raw.
If the simulator command line does not follow the format required by SynSim, a simple shell or perl wrapper is enough to make SynSim understand it. The wrapper script must be stored under SOURCES/; it should be written such that all relative paths are correct when it is executed under SOURCES/. That is because SynSim runs in a subdirectory fo the project directory. This means that, if the command line contains relative paths to a subdirectory, these paths must be prepended with '../'.
$ simulator INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE
$ simulator --o OUTPUTFILE INPUTFILE
$ simulator -i INPUTFILE > OUTPUTFILE
$ simulator < INPUTFILE > OUTPUTFILE
Example:
$ simulator sim.conf > sim.out
Wrapper:
$ simulator_wrapper.sh INPUTFILE > OUTPUTFILE
The file simulator_wrapper.sh contains 2 lines:
mv $1 sim.conf
simulator sim.conf
Example:
$ simulator INPUTFILE
The outputfile is called output.txt.
Wrapper:
$ simulator_wrapper.sh INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE
The file simulator_wrapper.sh contains 2 lines:
simulator $1
mv output.txt $2
Example:
$ simulator ../Config/INPUTFILE > OUTPUTFILE
The Config directory is in this case at the same level of project directory.
Wrapper:
$ simulator_wrapper.sh INPUTFILE > OUTPUTFILE
The file simulator_wrapper.sh contains 2 lines. Note the '../' prepended to the paths:
cp $1 ../../Config
simulator ../../Config/INPUTFILE
Example:
$ simulator INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE
The OUTPUTFILE is generated in the Results subdirectory.
Wrapper:
$ simulator_wrapper.sh INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE
The file simulator_wrapper.sh contains 2 lines. Note the '../' prepended to the path:
simulator $1 $2
cp ../Results/$2 .
$ simulator -a50 -b100 -c0.7
Output is saved in out.txt.
In this case, there is no actual wrapper script. We will create a simple shell script simulator.templ in TEMPLATES/. This script will act as the input file.
Wrapper:
$ bash INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE
We need the explicit call to bash because the INPUTFILE does not have the -x flag set.
The file simulator.templ in TEMPLATES/ contains 2 lines:
simulator -a_VAR1 -b_VAR2 -c_VAR3
cp out.txt $1
SynSim will create simulator.sh from this template file, and then will call bash to execute this shell script.
Example:
$ simulator config.in topo.in > out.res
Wrapper:
$ perl INPUTFILE OUTPUTFILE
Again, there is no actual wrapper script. The INPUTFILE template is in this case a perl script which contains itself templates for both input files. The script will create both input files, then run the simulator.
A possible implementation of simulator.templ:
#!/usr/bin/perl
#Template for simulator with multiple input files
my $config_templ=<<"ENDCONF";
/* This is the config.in template */
int var1 = _VAR1;
...
ENDCONF
my $topo_templ=<<"ENDTOPO";
;;This is the topo.in template
var2 = _VAR2
...
ENDTOPO
open CONF,">config.in";
print CONF $config_templ;
close CONF;
open TOPO, ">topo.in";
print TOPO $topo_templ;
close TOPO;
system("simulator config.in topo.in > $ARGV[0]");
#END of simulator.templ
SynSim will create simulator.pl and then will call perl to run the script
This module is still Alpha, a lot of work remains to be done to make it more user-friendly. The main tasks is to add a GUI. A prototype can be found on my web site, it is already useful but too early to include here. The next version will also make it easier to create your own postprocessing routines.
Wim Vanderbauwhede <wim\x40motherearth.org>
Copyright (c) 2000,2002-2003 Wim Vanderbauwhede. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.